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Belfast Zoo

October 13, 2011

Belfast Zoological Gardens is celebrating the arrival of two bundles of joy, in the form of two African pygmy hedgehog babies! Mickey and Minnie were born to parents, Tom and Geri, just six weeks ago and these prickly little creatures only measure between six and eight inches in length when fully grown! Below you get a feel for the size of both Mom (right) and baby (left).

Education Officer Geraldine Murphy is delighted with the new arrivals, “Belfast Zoo’s education officers and our small team of animals come into contact with over 40,000 children every year and the African pygmy hedgehogs are a firm favourite with everyone! Along with our team of animals including leopard geckos, tarantulas, royal pythons, bearded dragons and stick insects, we aim to raise awareness and understanding of the natural environment and to highlight the importance of conservation, particularly amongst young people.”

July 07, 2011

Keepers at Belfast Zoo UK are delighted to hear the pitter patter of tiny trotters after the recent birth of Maleah and Malu, two very special Visayan Warty Pigs. Proud parents Malcolm and Mabel arrived at their newly renovated Belfast Zoo enclosure in March/April 2010 from Chester Zoo and Rotterdam Zoo. The pair soon became inseparable and three weeks ago welcomed their new arrivals.

Zoo manager, Mark Challis is delighted with this achievement, saying, “The whole Zoo team is delighted and extremely proud that within just one year we have been able to renovate an enclosure, introduce two new critically endangered animals and successfully breed two piglets!"

"Visayan Warty Pigs are the most critically endangered of all wild pigs," he continued. "And while historically they were native to six islands within the Philippines they have already become extinct on four of them due to deforestation. And they are hunted for meat and by farmers to protect their harvest. With such a high risk of extinction in the wild, it makes the birth of Maleah and Malu very special and a real achievement for Belfast Zoo.”

July 05, 2011

At the end of May, four meerkat kits came into the world at Belfast Zoo in the UK.For the past four weeks, mom Fraggle has been caring for her babies in their underground burrow. But just a few days ago, the four kits emerged for the first time! They are enjoying the sunlight and beginning to explore their habitat with their parents.

Belfast Zoo manager, Mark Challis is delighted with the new arrivals, “The meerkats are definitely one of the most popular animals in the zoo and in the past few years we have had great success with our breeding group. In fact, last year several of our meerkats were transferred to other zoos in the UK and have since gone on to have their own young.”

June 16, 2011

Belfast Zoo in the UK, has welcomed three new additions to the Eastern bongo herd! Willa and Fern became mothers to Maggie and Ruby in April, while Kimbiri’s calf was named after the month in which she was born in - May. The resident male, Embu, arrived at Belfast Zoo from Chester Zoo in September 2006 and is father to all three calves!

Eastern bongos are found in the mountain forests of central Kenya. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) considers the Eastern bongo to be facing a very high risk of extinction; it is estimated that there are as few as 75 to 140 Eastern bongos left in the wild!

Zoo curator, Andrew Hope, is thrilled with the new arrivals. “The whole zoo team is delighted with the three new Eastern bongo calves and we are especially proud to be playing such an important role in the conservation of such a beautiful and threatened species. We take part in a collaborative breeding program to help protect the Eastern bongo and we have one of the most successful breeding herds in the UK.”

Photo Credit: Belfast Zoo

Zoo manager, Mark Challis, said, “Experts believe that zoos around the world will play a key role in the survival and future of this important sub-species. In fact some zoo bred animals are now part of the Bongo Repatriation Program. In 2004 this pioneering project reintroduced Eastern bongos from American zoos to the Mount Kenya Wildlife Conservancy, where the animals have since formed a core breeding group, producing offspring who will eventually be released into the World Heritage Site at Mount Kenya. Although our three latest arrivals may not be part of this project at present, it definitely shows the conservational importance of these three calves to the future of the sub-species.”

Visitors can help contribute to the care of these endangered animals by adopting an Eastern bongo at Belfast Zoo.

May 24, 2011

Born on January 15, 2011, baby Echo, a crowned sifaka, has staff at the Belfast Zoo jumping for joy! Keepers decided to call the baby Echo, as without successful breeding programmes this species will become nothing more than an echo of the past!

Crowned sifakas are critically endangered in the wild with numbers so low that exact figures are unknown. There are only approximately twenty crowned sifakas in zoos across the world and with infant mortality rates currently at 80%, staff at Belfast Zoo are ecstatic with the new arrival and his progress. Parents Linoa and Andry are the last breeding pair of crowned sifakas in the British Isles and Belfast Zoo’s group is extra special as they are on loan from the Madagascan government. Echo’s birth now brings Belfast Zoo’s group total to five.

“We were all very anxious in the first couple of weeks after Echo’s birth”, explains zoo curator, Julie Mansell. “When we discovered that Linoa was pregnant we were filled with both excitement and apprehension. We all know that the statistics are against us, but Echo is doing very well.”

Zoo manager, Mark Challis is thrilled, saying, “I am very proud of the zoo... All the hard work has certainly paid off. This achievement is colossal and let’s hope that it is an achievement that we can repeat in the future."

The crowned sifaka is a type of lemur, a group of primates found only in Madagascar. Sifakas are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature as they believe Sifakas face a very high risk of extinction in the wild.

May 04, 2011

In early April the Belfast Zoo welcomed a Southern Pudu baby, the aptly named "Pequeño!" The smallest member of the deer family, the Southern Pudu measures only 17 inches (43 centimeters) in adulthood. That's one tiny deer! At birth the fawn was so small that it was the same weight as a pint of milk! Zoo manager, Mark Challis, is delighted with the newest arrival “Southern Pudus are facing a high risk of extinction in the wild so the birth of the fawn is extremely important. Southern Pudus originate from the dense lowland forests of South Chile and South-west Argentina and as Spanish is the native language we have named the fawn, ‘Pequeño’ which means small.”

Currently there are just 70 pudu kept in European zoo’s, the European breeding programme is managed by zoologists in Wuppertal Zoo. This recent addition brings the total number of Southern Pudus at Belfast Zoo to four! Visitors can easily spot Pequeño as fawns have white spots, which provide camouflage.

August 03, 2010

Belfast’s famous lion, Lily, has had her first pair of cubs in her new home in the Czech Republic. Lily is an extremely rare Barbary Lion, a species that went extinct in the wild in 1922. Lily was born in 2007 at Belfast Zoo and was hand-reared after being rejected by her mother. Lily moved to the Czech Republic in August of 2009 to meet a suitable male lion named Simon. They moved to Olomouc Zoo together, and are now the proud parents of these brother and sister cubs.

July 15, 2010

It’s been a busy week for Belfast Zoo with the birth of two tiny baby monkeys. The new Lion-tailed Macaque and Black and White Colobus Monkey are being looked after well by their mums and the other females in their groups. Sometimes the mothers will even pass the babies off to responsible aunts and older sisters while they go take a break.

On an unrelated-to-anything-scientific note, baby Colobus Monkeys look to us like a cross between a sheep, a bichon and a tiny old man...

December 07, 2009

The Belfast Zoo's resident male Red Kangaroo is named Randalph, which zoo staff decided was close enough to "Rudolph" to name his newest joeys Dancer and Prancer. The largest marsupial in the world, Red Kangaroo's reach up to 190 lbs (85 kg) and almost 5 feet long from head to tail but at birth they weigh only .02 ounces (75 grams) and spend their first 150 days in mom's pouch!

September 25, 2009

Earlier this month, the world’s smallest deer, a Southern pudu, gave birth at Belfast
Zoo. Baby Caju is 3 weeks old and is the first Chilean pudu birth for
Belfast Zoo and the first captive birth of the species in Ireland.